Abstract

Past theory and research have suggested that motivationally intense affective states narrow cognitive scope. Research has also suggested manipulations that broaden cognitive scope reduce responses to appetitive positive affective stimuli and disgusting stimuli, thus suggesting that cognitive broadening reduces motivational intensity. This led to the hypothesis that cognitive broadening would reduce the approach-motivated negative emotion of anger. Seven studies assessed the effect of cognitive broadening on reported trait anger, state anger, attitudes toward anger, attributions of anger to ambiguous pictures, and accessibility of aggressive words. Results from individual studies found mixed support for these predictions. A meta-analysis, however, suggested a small but significant effect on trait anger/aggression and attitudes toward anger across studies. These results may indicate that cognitive scope, as manipulated in these studies, has a small effect on anger-related responses. Discussion speculates on potential explanations of these findings, and their importance for informing future research.

Highlights

  • IntroductionPublication bias and the tendency to retire null results to the file drawer often prevents this goal from being accomplished

  • The scientific process should be cumulative and self-correcting

  • We aimed to examine the effect of cognitive scope on several anger-related responses, to increase the generalizability of the tests and results

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Publication bias and the tendency to retire null results to the file drawer often prevents this goal from being accomplished This retirement may mislead as accumulating effects over several replications may yield evidence of an effect in a meta-analysis, even though not all of the experiments attain conventional statistical significance when viewed alone (Braver et al, 2014). Cognitive scope refers to the broadening or narrowing of cognitive processes (Harmon-Jones et al, 2012). It has featured widely in discussions on the influence of emotion on cognition (e.g., Fredrickson, 2001). Motivational intensity involves an impetus to act, whereas arousal does not necessarily (Gable and Harmon-Jones, 2013)

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call